The Life and Crimes of an Exemplary Man

Via internet, CADTM is very pleased to make this book, “...” available to a wide public. It may be freely copied by other sites and reproduced for non profit uses provided that a link to the CADTM website is clearly visible (www.cadtm.org). Feel free to send your comments and information on the personal or collective use you make of this book to info at cadtm.org. Your messages will be forwarded to Eric Toussaint, the author.

Aminata Traoré is a Malian politician and writer. Her books in French include L’étau. L’Afrique dans un monde sans frontières, Le Viol de l’Imaginaire, L’Afrique humiliée, and L’Afrique mutilée.

Jean Ziegler is a former professor of sociology at the University of Geneva and the Sorbonne, Paris. He was a Member of Parliament for the Social Democrats in the Federal Assembly of Switzerland from 1981 to 1999. He has also held several positions with the United Nations, especially as Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food from 2000 to 2008, and as a member of the Advisory Committee of the UN Human Rights Council from 2008 to 2012. His recent publications include Betting on Famine: Why the World Still Goes Hungry, New Press, 2013 (304p) ISBN 978-1-59558-849-4.

“Eric Toussaint has done progressives a great service by exposing the dark history of a high official of the International Monetary Fund. This book is essential reading for all those that struggle against the nefarious role of the IMF in global affairs, and for all those who believe that the Bretton Woods organizations are staffed by incorruptible “experts”."

Introduction by Pauline Imbach and Damien Millet

As financial and political scandals come and go, the names of important personalities pepper the international press, but in general, we only remember scattered details.

Jacques de Groote, the subject of this book, is an interesting example. He was Belgium’s executive director at the IMF and World Bank for nearly twenty years, and has recently been condemned in Bellinzona, Switzerland for “aggravated money laundering”, “fraud”, and “document forgery.” This story received a great deal of media attention in Europe and beyond throughout 2013.

What interests Éric Toussaint, who has radically criticised the IMF and the World Bank for several decades, is the emblematic role played by Jacques de Groote during a historical period of these two important international financial institutions to which the major media outlets accord so much attention. It is impossible to criticise them or their actions and unimaginable to question their existence in any way. Somehow, they are above all reproach. Their failures, and the serious damage resulting from them, have all been caused by conditions beyond their control. They enjoy unlimited intrinsic legitimacy. Being protected by immunity in the exercise of their functions, those in charge are never called to account. Since their creation in 1944, neither of these institutions has ever been taken to court despite repeated violations of human rights.

These two institutions are under the orders of the dominant governments and the big multinationals, oscillating between private interests (political, economic, and financial) and the interests of the great powers.

This fascinating book, which can be read like a historic novel, highlights these different aspects with examples taken from the career of Jacques de Groote. Éric Toussaint practices neither insinuation nor defamation; he sticks to the facts, basing his enquiry on clearly defined sources.

The narration takes us through the Congo of Mobutu, infamous for the harshness of his dictatorial regime and the personal fortune he amassed on the backs of the Congolese people. Then it is on to Rwanda where our hero helps his friend Van Den Branden, a baron and CEO of a major mining company. Killing three birds with one stone, de Groote acted in favour of the institutions he was representing, his friend, and the regime of General Juvenal Habiyarimana. The saga continues in the Czech Republic with the fraudulent privatisation of MUS (Mostecka Uhelna Spolecnost), one of the principal Czech coal mines. Belgium and its kingdom’s interests are also part of the narrative, as is the generalisation of neoliberal policies starting in the 1980s, and pressure groups, political friendships, and alliances. The operations take on a worldwide character: trials in the U.S. and Switzerland, a pipeline in India, World Bank and IMF success stories in Mexico, relations with the big international private banks, and on several occasions clear conflicts of interestInterestAn amount paid in remuneration of an investment or received by a lender. Interest is calculated on the amount of the capital invested or borrowed, the duration of the operation and the rate that has been set..
The backdrop of this work remains the international financial institutions that are so often guilty of infringing upon and violating human rights. Lifting the curtain to unveil their actions is essential. It goes without saying that they must answer for them, as must their Directors and representatives. It is crucial to analyse the powerful methods of domination at work all over the planet for the last seventy years. The CADTM has endeavoured to make this radical critique for over twenty years, and has published numerous analyses enabling us to understand the deathly logic commanding major international decisions.